could you make like a masterpost of german cases? thxxxx
hope ur ready for a long fuckin post
This one’s the simple one, it’s the subject of the sentence, meaning the thing that is doing something. For instance, in English, in the sentence “it’s the subject of the sentence”, “the subject” is the subject. Further examples in English and German, nominative/subject in italics:
The sun shines brightly. - Die Sonne scheint hell.
It was the uncle who committed the crime. - Es war der Onkel, der das Verbrechen beging.
Boys are often messy. - Jungs sind oft unordentlich.
Possible confusion points:
If you’re saying “[A] am/are/is [B]” (“[A] bin/bist/ist/sind/seid [B]”) where [A] and [B] are both nouns, both of them are in nominative. Don’t be fooled into thinking [B] is an object because ‘[B] being been by [A]’. Ex.: The tall man was the actor - Der große Mann war der Schauspieler.
Passive voice: if a sentence uses “[A] am/are/is [verb]ed by [B]” (“[A] werde/wirst/wird/werden von [B] ge[verb]t/en”, [A] is the subject. Ex.: He was arrested by the police - Er wurde von der Polizei festgenommen. You can think of it like the action that the subject is doing (in this example) is being arrested.
(definite, indefinite)Masculine: der, einFeminine: die, eineNeuter: das, einPlural: die, meine*
*You can’t have one of a plural thing, so I chose to use the word for my, and did this for the rest of the cases. Note that the possessive articles always have the same endings as the indefinite articles, except instead of ein- they use mein-, dein-, sein-, ihr-, unser-, eu(e)r-, Ihr-.
Here’s the worst part about German cases, the endings of the adjectives used before a noun change not only depending on gender and case of the noun but also on type of article used.
Definite articles (der/die/das/die):
Indefinite/possessive articles (ein/eine/ein/meine*):
This is nominative, so these will be the basic pronouns you already know:
I - ichYou (singular informal) - duHe/she/it - er/sie/esWe - wirYou (plural informal) - ihrYou (formal, singular or plural) - SieThey - sie
Relative pronouns are the ones used to connect clauses (Hauptsatz + Nebensatz), like “That is the girl who played piano” - “Das ist das Mädchen, das Klavier spielte”. In most cases (ha pun) it’s the same as the definite article:
Masculine: derFeminine: dieNeuter: dasPlural: die
There’s rarely a direct translation of this into English, which makes it slightly hard to explain, but it’s not that hard a concept. The genitive is used for possession, and would translate as “of the [noun]”. Examples in English and German, genitive in italics:
The colour of the stone is black. - Die Farbe des Steins ist schwarz.
What is the song of the week? - Was ist das Lied der Woche?
The name of the girl is Sandra. - Der Name des Mädchens ist Sandra.
In some cases in English this can be rewritten as [noun]’s (for instance, “this girl’s name is Sandra”). This comes from the same root as the German genitive in masculine and neuter (you’ll find that both of those genders add a -(e)s to the noun when in genitive). In fact, in Old English, we would have had similar rules, so if we lived in the 11th century, we would have said (I think) “se nama þæs mægdnes is Sandra”.
N.B. In sophisticated texts and some common phrases you might have the genitive before the object. Ex.:(An idiom meaning) Do whatever makes you happy (literally, the will of man is his kingdom of heaven - Des Menschen Wille ist sein Himmelreich.Unity and justice and freedom are the promise of happiness - Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit sind des Glückes Unterpfand. (this is from the German national anthem)
Masculine**: des, einesFeminine: der, einerNeuter**: des, einesPlural: der, meiner*
**Masculine and neuter nouns in genitive, with few exceptions which will be mentioned at the end, take -(e)s as an ending. Ex.: Die Bevölkerung des Landes ist ziemlich groß.
Definite articles (des/der/des/der):
Indefinite/possessive articles (eines/einer/eines/meiner*):
There aren’t real genitive personal pronouns in that there’s no single word for “of me”. To say stuff like that, you’d either use a possessive (before the noun) or the preposition “von” + the dative personal pronoun (after the noun).
These ones would translate as “whose” or “of which the”. Ex.: I spoke with the man whose wife works at Samsung - Ich redete mit dem Mann, dessen Frau bei Samsung arbeitet.
Masculine: dessenFeminine: derenNeuter: dessenPlural: deren
For all cases except nominative, some prepositions take those cases. For genitive, there aren’t many - here’s a definitely incomplete list:
statt - instead oftrotz - despite/in spite ofwegen - because ofwährend - duringlaut - according toanhand - based on/usinghinsichtlich - in terms of
When using a genitive-preposition with a personal pronoun (e.g. according to me), it’s usually okay to use the dative personal pronoun instead (laut mir) because there is no pronoun for “of me”. However, for some of these phrases there are single words that take that meaning, such as meinetwegen for “because of me”. Some genitive pronouns also tend to be used with the dative by accident (even by Germans), so don’t worry if you use the wrong case.
The main use of the dative is as the indirect object, and would usually translate in English into phrases with “to”: Ich gab das Buch dem Mann - I gave the book to the man. Note that this sentence is correct, but so is “Ich gab dem Mann das Buch”, and “dem Mann gab ich das Buch”. However, some verbs take dative (as either reflexive or objective) and lots of prepositions take dative.
Masculine: dem, einemFeminine: der, einerNeuter: dem, einemPlural: den***, meinen***(and *)
***When using den for the dative plural but not for the accusative masculine, the noun takes -(e)n, unless it already ends with n. Ex.: The young children like video games (literally, video games please the young children) - Videospiele gefallen den jungen Kindern.
Definite articles (dem, der, dem, den):
Indefinite/possessive articles (einem/einer/einem/meinen*):
me - miryou (singular, informal) - dirhim/her/it - ihm/ihr/ihmus - unsyou (plural, informal) - euchyou (formal) - Ihnenthem - ihnen
Masculine: demFeminine: derNeuter: demPlural: den
Incomplete list of prepositions that take the dative:
mit - withbei - at/byvon - fromseit - sincenach - afterzu - togegenüber - opposite/on the other side of (most often used with streets)aus - out ofan**** - on/toin**** - inneben**** - next toauf**** - onvor**** - in front ofunter**** - underüber**** - overzwischen**** - betweenhinter**** - behind
****These nine can take dative or accusative, but thankfully the rule is always the same. If movement is involved, you use accusative - if not, dative. Ex.: Ich schwimme ins Meer - I am swimming into the sea. Ich schwimme im Meer - I am swimming in the sea.
Many verbs take dative, such as “I am listening to him” - Ich höre ihm zu, but there are way too many to list. Here are some of the most common:
antworten - to answerdanken - to thankgehören - to belong togefallen - to please/to be liked by (Note that it isn’t to like, which is mögen, but to be liked by. Ex.: Es gefällt mir doesn’t mean it likes me, but I like it - literally, it pleases [to] me)helfen - to helpand one common phrase using dative: Es tut mir Leid - I am sorry [for that] (literally, “it does me suffering”)
This is probably the second one you (will) have learnt after nominative, and it’s the direct object. This just means it’s the thing which something is being done to by the subject. Ex.: I will eat a fried egg - Ich werde ein Spiegelei essen. It’s also used, however, in some prepositions.
Masculine: den, einenFeminine: die, eineNeuter: das, einPlural: die, meine*
Note that apart from masculine, the accusative is the same as the nominative. Be glad.
Definite articles (den, die, das, die):
Indefinite/possessive articles (einen/eine/ein/meine*):
me - michyou (singular, informal) - dichhim/her/it - ihn/sie/esus - unsyou (plural, informal) - euchyou (formal) - Siethem - sie
Masculine: denFeminine: dieNeuter: dasPlural: die
Incomplete list of prepositions that take the accusative:
bis - until/up untilfür - fordurch - throughum - around/at (a time)ohne - withoutan**** - on/toin**** - inneben**** - next toauf**** - onvor**** - in front ofunter**** - underüber**** - overzwischen**** - betweenhinter**** - behind
Literally most verbs that have an object and couldn’t be translated as doing something to the object (answering to a question, antworten uses dative) take accusative.
There are nouns known as “weak nouns” that take -(e)n as well as the normal ending when they’re not in nominative. The most important one to know is Name. (Also remember it’s der Name not die Name even though it ends with e.) Ex.: He writes me his name - Er schreibt mir seinen Namen. The family is American, in spite of the Italian surname - Die Familie ist amerikanisch, trotz des italienischen Nachnamens. As well as this there’s the word der Mensch (the person/the human) that has the normal declension except for genitive: N der Mensch, G des Menschen, D dem Mensch, A den Mensch.
In old German, the dative in masculine and neuter nouns took an -e ending, and we still see remnants of that in phrases like zuhause (at home), nach Hause ([to] home) and zugrunde (many meanings)
There are verbs that take the genitive object, but you’ll rarely or never see them in conversational German. Ex.: The presidents of each country commemorate the lost lives in the war - Die Präsidenten von den zwei Ländern gedenken der verlorenen Leben des Krieges.
probably some more things i’ve forgotten but literally i’ve spent too long on this bye jfc i hope this is useful
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